Young Islanders to take on Waterville in first match of South Kerry Football Championship

On Friday evening, July 8th , the draws for the Senior, Minor and Junior football championships of the South Kerry GAA Committee took place at the venue of DermotWalsh’s Super Valu outlet of Cahirsiveen.

The draws were made under the guidance of the South Kerry Committee Chairman Michael Keating of Skellig Rangers, who expressed, on behalf of the Committee, players and supporters, his deep gratitude to Walsh’s Super Valu for their very significant and substantial sponsorship of the championship games. The shopping centre is a major employer in the area and as such local support is vital to it’s existence.

The South Kerry senior football championship draws for 2016 are as follows(first teams named in each pairing have home venues):

Sneem-Derrynane v. St.Michaels-Foilmore. Dromid Pearses v.Skellig Rangers. Renard v St.Marys. Valentia Young Islanders v. Waterville Frank Caseys.

Meanwhile in the South Kerry Minor Championship, the schedule is as follows (venues not confirmed):

St. Marys-Renard v. Dromid-Waterville.

Skellig/Valentia/Sneem/Derrynane v. St. Michaels-Foilmore.

It is of interest to note that all competing clubs are amalgamated. Note the combination of Skellig/Valentia/Sneem/ Derrynane to comprise one team. An indication of the drop in population in the Iveragh area, which is moving towards crisis level.

And in the South Kerry Junior Cup Renard,the first drawn team and St.Marys,the second drawn team are semi-finalists.

Sneem-Derrynane v.Skellig Rangers. The winners to play Renard in the semi-final; Waterville v.St.Michaels-Foilmore with the winners to play St. Marys in the second semi-final. Note that the Valentia Young Islanders do not compete in this competition.

The islanders are these days very hard pressed to put an A team together for all competitions with such limited numbers.

LEFT: The results are in! Valentia children at the Walsh’s Super Valu draw for the South Kerry football championships at SuperValu,Cahirsiveen on Friday last, July 8.

ABOVE: Donncha Lyne of Valentia, holding the South Kerry Senior Championship Cup named after his great-great-granduncle, Kerry footballer Jack Murphy.